The

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The Planet Mercury
By J.T. Casanova Grant Raley Darrick
Brown Shayla Cormier Rachel
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Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, and the
second-smallest planet in the solar system.
Only 4045 of the planet has been mapped.
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Where is Mercury?

• Mercury is the planet that is closest to the Sun.
  
• It is about 60 closer to the Sun than the Earth.

• Mercury is 36 million miles away from the Sun.
• In comparison, the Earth is 93 million miles
  away.
• Because Mercury is so close to the Sun, it can
  often be seen in the early evening in the sky
  near where the Sun has set.

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How Big Is Mercury?

• Mercury is the 8th largest planet.
• The only planet smaller is Pluto.

• It has a radius of 1515 miles.
• In comparison, the Earth has a radius of 3960
  miles, so the Earth is about 2.6 times as big
  across as Mercury.

• In the picture drawn to scale below you can see
  how much bigger the Earth is than Mercury.

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Mercury size in relation to its nearest
neighborsVenus, Earth, and Mars.
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Mercury? Whats in the Name?

• The planet was named after the Roman god Mercury,
  son of Zeus and Maia.
• God of physicians and thieves and the god of
  commerce, wrestling, gymnastic exercises, and
  what required skill and dexterity

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How Did the Planet Mercury Get Its Name?

• The Roman god Mercury and his Greek counterpart,
  Hermes were often drawn or sculpted wearing a
  hat and shoes with wings on them, indicating that
  these gods moved quickly from one place to
  another.

• The planet Mercury changes position in the sky
  from night to night more quickly than the other
  planets, which is probably why it was named after
  this speedy Roman god.

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History of the Planets Name

• Before the 5th century BC, the planet Mercury
  actually had two names, as it was not realized it
  could alternately appear on one side of the Sun
  and then the other.

• It was called Hermes when in the evening sky, but
  was known as Apolloin honor of the Roman god of
  the Sun when it appeared in the morning.

• Pythagoras is credited for pointing out that they
  were one and the same.

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Observation of Mercury
Observation of Mercury is severely complicated by
its proximity to the Sun, as it is lost in the
Sun's glare at least half the time, and at most
other times can be observed for only a brief
period during either morning or evening twilight.
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How Long Does It Take Mercury to Orbit the Sun?

• Mercury does not take as long as the Earth does
  to go around, or orbit, the sun.
• The Earth orbits the sun once every 365 days,
  which is how we determine the length of a year on
  Earth.
• The length of a year on Mercury is equal to 88
  days on Earth, or about 3 Earth months.
• In the time it takes the Earth to go around the
  Sun one time Mercury will orbit the Sun 4 times.

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Whats Around the Planet Mercury?

• Mercury has no natural satellites.
• Mercury has only trace amounts of an atmosphere.
• The atmosphere of Mercury is extremely thin
  indeed, gas molecules in Mercury's atmosphere
  collide with the surface of the planet more
  frequently than they collide with each other for
  most purposes Mercury can be considered to lack
  an atmosphere.
• The "atmosphere" is primarily composed of
  oxygen, potassium, and sodium.

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How Hot Is Mercury?

• The mean surface temperature of Mercury is 452 K,
  or 179º C but it ranges from 90700 K
• By comparison, the temperature on Earth varies by
  only about 11 K
• The sunlight on Mercury's surface is 8.9 times
  more intense than that on Earth.

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What Is the Temperature On Mercury?  

• Even though Mercury is very close to the sun, its
  temperature varies greatly because nights on
  Mercury last for about 3 months, and there is
  hardly any atmosphere to hold in heat.
• On the side of Mercury that faces the sun
  temperatures can reach 750 degrees Fahrenheit
  (400 degrees Celsius).
• On the side turned away from the sun, the
  temperature often falls to -240 degrees
  Fahrenheit (-150 degrees Celsius).
• The almost 1000 degree Fahrenheit range in
  temperature is the widest range experienced by
  any planet in the solar system.

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A Planet of Contradictions?

• Surprisingly, radar observations taken in 1992
  indicated that there is frozen water ice at
  Mercury's north pole.
• Such ice is believed to exist at the bottom of
  permanently shaded craters, where it has been
  deposited by comet impacts and/or gases arising
  from the planetary interior.

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• Mercury's cratered surface appears very similar
  to the Moon.
• Mercury's most distinctive surface feature is
  Caloris Basin, a impact crater.
• The planet is marked with scarps, apparently
  formed billions of years ago as Mercury's core
  cooled and shrank causing the crust to wrinkle.
• The majority of Mercury's surface is covered with
  plains of two distinct ages the younger plains
  are less heavily cratered and probably formed
  when lava flows buried earlier terrain.
• In addition, Mercury has "significant" tidal
  bulges.

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• The planet has a relatively large iron core (even
  when compared to Earth).
• Mercury's composition is approximately 70
  metallic and 30 silicate.
• The average density is 5430 kg/m³ which is
  slightly less than Earth's density.
• Mercury has only 5.5 of Earth's mass.
• The iron core fills 42 of the planetary volume
  (Earth's core only fills 17).
• Surrounding the core is a 600km mantle.

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Mercurys Orbit

• The orbit of Mercury is eccentric, ranging from
  4670 million kilometers in radius only Pluto
  among all planets has a more eccentric orbit.
• The slow precession of this orbit around the Sun
  could not be completely explained by Newtonian
  Classical Mechanics, and for some time it was
  thought that another planet (sometimes referred
  to as Vulcan) might be present in an orbit even
  closer to the Sun to account for this
  perturbation.
• Einstein's General Theory of Relativity instead
  provided the explanation for this small
  discrepancy, however.

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Magnetosphere

• Despite its slow rotation, Mercury has a
  relatively strong magnetosphere, with 1 of the
  magnetic field strength generated by Earth.

• It is possible that this magnetic field is
  generated in a manner similar to Earth's, by a
  dynamo of circulating liquid core material
  current estimates suggest that Mercury's core is
  not hot enough to liquefy nickel-iron, but it is
  possible that materials with a lower melting
  point such as sulfur may be responsible.

• It is also possible that Mercury's magnetic field
  is a remnant of an earlier dynamo effect that has
  now ceased, the magnetic field becoming "frozen"
  in solidified magnetic materials.

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What Would I Weigh on Mercury?

• People weigh different amounts on different
  planets because of gravity. Gravity is a force
  that "pulls" between objects.

• The Earth is a very large mass that is pulling on
  us. When you stand on a scale and it shows you
  weigh 100 pounds, it is because the Earth is
  pulling on your body with a force strong enough
  to push the scale down to indicate you weigh 100
  pounds.

• But what if we took the same scale to Mercury and
  stood on it there?

• Mercury is a planet with a much smaller mass than
  Earth, so its pull on our body is a lot less.

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NASA Efforts

• The only spacecraft to approach Mercury has been
  the NASA Mariner 10 mission (197475).

• A second NASA mission to Mercury,
• named MESSENGER (MErcury Surface,
• Space ENvironment, GEochemistry,
• and Ranging), was launched on
• August 3, 2004 from the Cape Canaveral
• Air Force Station in Florida, USA,
• aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket.

• The MESSENGER spacecraft will make three flybys
  of Mercury in 2008 and 2009 before entering a
  year-long orbit of the planet in March 2011. It
  will explore the planet's atmosphere, composition
  and structure.

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Left This cliff that runs across the surface of
Mercury is over 185 miles (300 km) long.
Right-Top This view of Mercury was compiled from
images taken by the American spacecraft Mariner
10, which studied the planet in 1974.
Right-Bottom There are many large craters on
Mercury, like the ones above, that make the
planet look a lot like our Moon.
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Works Cited
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_28planet29
http//www.bol.ucla.edu/quizbowl/myth.htm
http//waltm.net/mercury.htm
http//www.adlerplanetarium.org/astronomy/solarsys
tem/mercury_y.shtml
http//www.the-solar-system.net/planet-mercury/mer
cury-pictures.html
http//images.google.com/images
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The End